Thursday, August 18, 2011

Rosemary Roasted Onions

Onions are one of my favorite foods, I could eat them all day, if it weren't for the wonderful 'gifts' onion bring. Strong breath to name just one, keeps me from eating them so often. Mr. W is not an onion fan, I am sure you noticed that I grate the onions up if he is eating the dish with me (he loves the flavor). Another trick is to cut the pieces large enough so that they can be eaten around. Em is undecided. At 18 months, she is still texturally challenged. She eats onions that are cooked in a 'skillet meal' like an unstuffed pepper skillet with rustic chopped veggies. But if they are slightly crunchy she won't eat them yet.

I have a lot of hope for her palette though, as Mr. W and I were both picky growing up I want to offer her a broad array of foods to choose from. Believe it or not I didn't eat chicken, fish, seafood, steak, pretty much anything on a bone or that swam in the sea until I was about 30ish. I am slowly coming around, I eat chicken although I am still bone shy. I love steak. However the whole seafood category is a loss. I really want to love seafood. My theory is that perhaps I just have had poor quality seafood and that is why I don't like it. I am hopeful that someday I am going to try something and just fall head over heals in love with seafood.

So, I can't criticize Mr. W too much. He has his food issues and I have mine. We are both trying to be more open to culinary experiences as we go on this food journey with Em.

I bet you are thinking that this dish look amazing, but what do you serve them with?! I made this with the Chicken Piccata that I posted a few weeks ago. It was the perfect compliment to the dish, the flavors are amazing. The onions are caramelized in the oven with the fruity olive oil and the tang of the dijon mustard and the freshness of the lemon really comes through. These onions are amazing. Truth is I had to reshoot them because they were so good that I ate too many before I took pictures.

This time I made a double batch. Luckily, I am the only onion junkie in the house so I am hoping I can still eat some and have enough left for pictures. Did I mention these are incredible??? Buon Appetito!

Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.

Pour the dressing over the onions and toss well (I tried to use spoons, but the hands are the perfect tool for this job).

With a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a sheet pan, reserving the vinaigrette that remains in the bowl. Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the onions once during cooking.
Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the reserved dressing. Season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.

15 comments:

I love onions, too and this looks wonderful. The dressing by itself sounds great. One of my daughters just decided that onions that are cooked are actually pretty good, but the other one won't touch them. This is a great side dish - love it!

I love this combination of flavors. I can't imagine just doing onions though. I usually roast other veggies or potatoes with them. Sam would be in heaven with just a pan of onions though. I'll have to try onions on their own, now that I have four million pounds of them here to use!

roasted vegetables are wonders in themselves, add rosemary and you just blew me away love it. chicken picatta is the perfect pairing too- great dish. i like to say picaaaatttttta because it is fun that way.